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Amazon ends Fire phone sales

(Bloomberg)—If you’re in the market for Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire phone, you might have to look for it on eBay Inc.

Inventory of the smartphones, which went on sale in July 2014, was no longer available on Amazon’s website and AT&T Inc.’s online store.

"We don’t plan to replenish stock at this time," an Amazon spokeswoman said. "We will continue to support our Fire phone customers."

CEO Jeff Bezos introduced the Fire phone, which featured 3-D viewing and image-recognition technology, as a simpler way for users to buy items from Amazon. The company struggled to expand sales, cutting the price to 99 cents three months after its debut from $199.99 with a carrier contract. Amazon also took a $170 million inventory charge in October due mostly to the failed phone, which contributed to its worst quarterly net loss in more than a decade and sent the company’s stock tumbling.

It wasn’t clear whether Amazon had any plans to introduce a new version of the Fire phone. Dozens of engineers who worked on the smartphone were laid off recently, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

The disappearance of Fire phones from Amazon and AT&T stores happened the same week that Apple Inc. took the wraps off the latest version of its iPhone, which generated $31.4 billion in revenue in the latest quarter.

Unlocked new Fire phones were selling on eBay’s online marketplace for about $135 on Thursday.